Tritium leaks at Oyster Creek blamed on incompetence

A coalition of environmental groups has stated that two recently released documents show that tritium leaks at the Oyster Creek Generating Station were caused, in part, by failures by the plant's owner to submit correct documents to support its license renewal application and a federal agency's failure to review those documents adequately.

Richard Webster, the legal director of the Eastern Environmental Law Center who represents the coalition said Tuesday that the first document is the complete root cause report for the April 2009 underground tritium pipe leaks at the Forked River facility. Tritium is a low level radioactive isotope which can be harmful in large concentrations.

Webster said that the report revealed "the basis used for license renewal was wrong and there was no independent review of the pipe inspection program leading to insufficient/nonexistent program reviews."